Followers

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Normally there is no one I admire more than a (good) stay at home parent. They work 24/7/365 taking care of their children. My mother was amazing, she was constantly working around the house, mowing our yard, cleaning, gardening, and taking care of me. I have always wanted to be a SAHM or even a WAHM but know that until I pay off my student loan debt (and you know have kids) that isn't an option.

But today a couple of people have really annoyed me.

I am a member of the A Bowl Full of Lemons Home Organization Group on FaceBook. I have been a member of the group for a couple of years and have followed her blog since we lived in Georgia. I really like her home organization challenge and how well put together it is, I usually have to modify it slightly because the spaces don't always match up 1:1 with our house (no kids stuff!) and I am a busy person but I have done it 3 or 4 times in the past 6 or 7 years and plan on participating in the 2017 New Years one.

Three different times today people posted on the Facebook page things like

"how does everyone find time to keep their house clean etc., I have no time between working ____ (less than 20 hours), kids stuff, and feeding my family"

But the one that really struck a nerve for me was one that said (copying actual text b/c I don't want to misquote...)

"Did you ladies have trouble keeping up with the last organizational challenge while maintaining everything else? Bills, kids activities, laundry, grocery shopping and cooking?? I also work 4 to 8 hours a week and volunteer a couple hours a week at my daughters elementary school."

Herein lies my issues:

1-Not everyone in the group is a lady (tho those who participate mostly are

2-She works 1 day a week and volunteers "a couple", which means 3 days...which means she has 2 free days per week that people who work full time don't have.

I totally understand kids add a level of complexity to your life. I understand that everyone has different abilities and needs and income levels and such...

I get that the more time you are at home the more time you can make a mess...however if you are at home you also can do the things that you need to at home in order to keep your house clean/organized etc.

Because there are some things that are equally necessary wether you are at home or not

-Bills still need paid

-Laundry still needs washed

-Floors still need swept/mopped

-Shelves still need dusted

-Food still needs cooked

-Dishes still need washed

So, Since January 1-March 1 are super busy for me at work I am going to track the amount of time I spend at home and what I do with that time.

ALL WHILE COMPLETING the Home Organization Challenge.

And I am going to document it on my blog....

Then I am going to put together a home cleaning checklist that is reasonable for people who live busy lives and aren't physically home enough to devote the 1 hour + per night to "quick daily cleanups" that are recommended all over the internet to keep homes clean.

Pro tip- Here is the first secret...Married couples should be teams and split up the damn work according to their relative free time. For us Jan-March this year is going to rough, Hubby is going to be studying for his first class exam while I am working on year end closing of financial statements and preparation of federal reports. Plus we are both going to be going hard core towards starting 2017 on a healthy foot and kicking our Advocare results up to the next level.

I'll post later this week with my New Years Resolutions updates for 2016 and my resolutions for 2017.